Seat Selection Application For Social Distancing Compliance

ABSTRACT

In various examples, a seating application may be leveraged to allow users to select—within a graphical user interface (GUI)—a seat or seats at a venue that maintain compliance with social distancing standards. For example, as each user selects seats, the seats available to the next users may be updated—e.g., dynamically—such that a minimum distance is maintained between and among each individual user or group of users (e.g., a family). As a result, during periods where social distancing measures may be in place, users and venue staff may have peace of mind that social distancing standards are being met to ensure safety, while also maximizing event space usage.

BACKGROUND

Seating applications and associated graphical user interfaces (GUIs)allow users to select seats for any of a variety of events oractivities—such as movies, sporting events, concerts, musicals, plays,eating out, etc. However, during times where social distancing measuresmay be in place—such as during a quarantine due to a pandemic, airquality issues, and/or the like—these applications fail to account forsuch measures. For example, a user may select and purchase seats inadvance only to be turned away when arriving at the locations of theevent or activity due to policies, practices, or measures that are ineffect. As such, a user may waste their time selecting and purchasingthe tickets, driving to and from the location, and ultimately attemptingto be refunded. With respect to the establishment or location of theevent or activity, attempts to comply with social distancing measuresmay fall short. For example, employees or other workers may attempt tospace individuals or parties (e.g., families) at a certain distance fromother individuals or parties using their own perception. However, theseattempts, although done with good intent, may prove futile as thespacing of individuals or parties may not actually comply with socialdistancing standards (e.g., at least six feet of distance between peoplefrom separate parties) and/or may not maximize the capacity of the space(e.g., may actually seat less people than acceptable under the currentmeasures). As a result, there is a need for an application with a GUIthat supports social distancing measures—thereby not only improving theuser experience, but also allowing a venue to maximize seating whilealso complying with social distancing and/or other quarantine standards.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a seating selectionapplication for social distancing compliance. Systems and methods aredisclosed that dynamically adjust available seating at a venue, in arestaurant, on an airplane, at an amusement park, or in another spacebased on user selections. As a result, when a user attempts to selectseats, the seats available to the user—and presented as such within agraphical user interface (GUI)—may be in compliance with socialdistancing and/or other quarantine standards thereby improving the userexperience. In addition, because the application may have knowledge ofactual spacing between and dimensions of each seat or occupied space ateach respective venue or activity location, the assigned seats of eachof the users may be compliant with social distancing measures. Further,the event or activity location—e.g., venue, restaurant, airplane,stadium, etc. —may leverage the application to assign seats such thatthe seating capacity is maximized while still keeping the location incompliance with any local, state, or federal mandatory or suggestedsocial distancing guidelines. Thus, in contrast to conventional systems,such as those described above, the present social distance seating oroccupancy application may reduce user frustration, provide peace of mindto users and venue staff, as well as maximize profits and compliance forthe venue even during times where stringent social distancing measuresmay be in place.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present systems and methods for a seating application for socialdistancing compliance are described in detail below with reference tothe attached drawing figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a seating application system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 2A-2B depict example illustrations of a graphical user interface(GUI) for selecting seats at a location, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for seat selection incompliance with minimum distance measures, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example computing device suitable foruse in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are disclosed related to a seating application forsocial distancing compliance. The social distancing or minimum distancemeasures described herein correspond to any location, venue, activity,or object, such as but not limited to: airplanes, trains, buses,subways, metro, amusement parks, parks, concert halls, musical theaters,concert venues, movie theaters, restaurants, bars, wedding venues, eventvenues, fitness centers, or gyms. In addition, although seats is theprimary space described herein, this is not intended to be limiting. Insome embodiments, any type of space for a person may be used, such as aseat, a portion of an environment (e.g., a three foot by three footsquare in the environment), a portion of a bench or table, a portion ofa standing room only section of a venue, restaurant, or bar, etc. Inaddition, although primarily described herein with respect to minimumdistance measures, methods and systems described herein may generally beused for managing capacities, updating capacity information, spacereservations, and/or the like, whether or not minimum distance measuresare in place. Although primarily described herein with respect to socialdistancing compliance, the present seating application may be used inany circumstance where social distancing is desired or required. Forexample, where a venue is reserved for multiple separate parties, theseating application may allow each party to select a location (e.g.,including some number of seats, a space within the venue, etc.), and theavailable locations for a next party may be based on the alreadyselected locations of other parties such that social distancing rulesare satisfied. In such an example, the social distancing rules may bebased on a level of sound (e.g., in decibels) that may carry in theevent space. As such, assuming the distance between parties is ten feetbased on an analysis of the sound information, the locations availableto a party may be such that a ten foot distance between and among allparties is satisfied. As another example, where a game is to be playedwith various groups or individuals, and a distance between groups isrequired or suggested for the game, the seating application may be usedto allow individuals or teams to select locations at the venue thatcomply with the distance standards.

With reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is an example seating applicationsystem 100, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. It should be understood that this and other arrangementsdescribed herein are set forth only as examples. Other arrangements andelements (e.g., machines, interfaces, functions, orders, groupings offunctions, etc.) may be used in addition to or instead of those shown,and some elements may be omitted altogether. Further, many of theelements described herein are functional entities that may beimplemented as discrete or distributed components or in conjunction withother components, and in any suitable combination and location. Variousfunctions described herein as being performed by entities may be carriedout by hardware, firmware, and/or software. For instance, variousfunctions may be carried out by a processor executing instructionsstored in memory. In addition, in some embodiments, features,functionalities, and/or components of the system 100—such as theserver(s) 102 and/or the client device(s) 102—may be similar to thosedescribed herein with respect to example computing device 400 of FIG. 4.In other embodiments, additional and/or alternative features,functionalities, and/or components of the system 100 other than thosedescribed herein with respect to example computing device 400 of FIG. 4may be implemented without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure.

The system 100 may include one or more servers 102 (or other remotecomputing devices) communicatively coupled to one or more client devices104 (e.g., client devices 104A-104C) over one or more networks 106(e.g., local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), etc.). Forexample, the server(s) 192 and the client device(s) 104 may be nodes ina cloud computing or distributed computing environment. The clientdevice(s) 104 may include a smartphone, a tablet computer, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a smart television, a streaming device(e.g., an APPLE TV, an AMAZON FIRE STICK, etc.), a smart watch, a gameconsole, an electronic kiosk (e.g., for purchasing tickets at a movietheater or other venue), and/or another type of client device.

The server(s) 102 may include a server application 108 for managingreserved, unavailable, and/or available seats for users of the clientdevices 104 in compliance with social distancing or other required ordesired distance measures. For example, the server application 108 mayupdate seating diagrams corresponding to any of variety of venues,forums, objects (e.g., multi-passenger vehicles), and/or the like. Assuch, as users of client applications 110 on the client devices 104select seats, request available seats, etc. within the clientapplication 110, the server application 108 may update or populate theseating diagrams and transmit the same to the client applications 110 inreal-time or near real-time.

In some embodiments, the client applications 110 may correspond todifferent vendors, companies, or software developers, and the serverapplication 108 may act as a central host for each different clientapplication 110. As such, a first user may use a third party vendorclient application 110 (e.g., FANDANGO) to purchase a ticket for a movieand a second user may use a client application 110 corresponding to thespecific theater company (e.g., CINEMARK, AMC, etc.). In either case,the seating diagrams populated within each client application 110 may beaccurate and updated based on the server application 108. In suchexamples, the server application 108 may communicate with one or moreservers 102—and corresponding applications—of the third party vendorand/or the specific theater. For example, the server application 108 mayinclude an application programming interface (API) that may be accessedby third party applications and/or the client applications 110 in orderto generate up-to-date and accurate seating diagrams, as well asproposed available seats within the seating diagrams, that comply withsocial distancing or other minimum distance measures.

The client applications 110 may include one or more graphical userinterfaces (GUIs) for performing various operations with respect to theclient application 110. For example, a user may create an account forhimself or herself, add names and/or information about other members ofa party, provide location information, enable certain features of theclient device 104 for the client application 110 (e.g., notifications,location tracking or access, microphone access, camera access, speakeraccess, etc.), link payment information, select favorites, interests, orpreferences, add member numbers (e.g., frequent flyer numbers, rewardsnumbers, etc.), and/or other account information.

In addition, a user may select an activity, an event, a venue, a flight,a bus route, a train route, a restaurant, etc. within the clientapplication 110. In some embodiments, the user may provide a number ofpersons in their party and/or a number of seats or spaces (e.g., actualseats, standing locations, demarcated seats on a bench, spots in a line,machines at a casino, etc.) desired—e.g., using graphical elements 206Aand 206B within GUI 202A of FIG. 2A. The user may require verificationprior to being allowed to select seats, or to select seats for others ina party. The verification may correspond to whether the user is acertain age (e.g., for a rated R movie, to travel alone or with otherswho are not above a certain age, etc.), whether the members of a partyall satisfy some criteria (e.g., where there is a pandemic or otherissue, may require that parties be members of an immediate family suchthat the event space is not used for gatherings of friends or otherparties who are not immediately quarantined together), whether paymentinformation is verified, etc. In some embodiments, this verification maybe via documentation provided by the user as part of account informationor transaction information. For example, the documentation may includebirth certificate, driver's license, passport, names from variousdocuments, addresses from various documents, a combination thereof, etc.In other embodiments, the verification may correspond to a testingoutcome. For example, where social distancing measures are in place dueto a pandemic, the verification may include uploading, providingdocumentation of, or linking to results of a negative test (or a testindicating that the party member is no longer contagious) within somewindow of time (e.g., 24 hours, a week, a month, etc.). For example, anindication of the verification or absence thereof may be provided viadisplay element 204 of FIG. 2A.

In some embodiments, a user may be able to select a minimum distancemeasure—e.g., using graphical elements 208A and 208B of FIG. 2A. Forexample, where social distancing requirements are not in place, theremay be situations, events, activities, etc. (e.g., individuals whoprefer distance, to protect privacy of conversations, etc.) where aminimum distance measure is desired or required. As such, in someembodiments, a user may select a minimum distance measure. The user maydesire to sit a certain distance from others, especially where alocation is not fully busy (e.g., full, at capacity, etc.). Availableseats may thus be determined based on the minimum distance measureselected by the user. In other examples, even where a social distancingrequired minimum distance is in place, the graphical elements 208A and208B may be used to adjust the minimum distance upwards such as toprovide a greater barrier of protection. In some embodiments, a user mayalso select to have their seating dynamically adjusted—even afterpurchase—to comply with a user-defined minimum distance measure. Assuch, where a user first selects a seat(s) that is at least ten feetfrom a nearest reserved seat, then another user selects a seat that nowmakes the nearest reserved seat six feet, the seats of the original usermay be reassigned —if possible—to satisfy the ten foot distance measureor at least to increase the distance measure as much as possible up toten feet.

In some embodiments, although not illustrated, a capacity of location orvenue may be displayed within the GUI, where the capacity may differbased on predefined (e.g., social distancing requirements) and/oruser-defined distance measures. In further embodiments, a currentcapacity may be displayed in the GUI, and/or a current capacity in viewof the allowed capacity which may provide an indication of how busy thelocation is. The current capacity may be illustrated as a number ofpersons, as a percentage of the actual capacity, and/or in anotherformat. In some embodiments, the GUI may display the suggested orrequired minimum distance measure. For example, where the GUI does notallow for changing the distance measure, the GUI may still display thecurrent minimum distance measure for that location. In some embodiments,minimum distance measures may be different depending on the type ofvenue—e.g., outdoor distance measures may be greater than indoordistance measures. In addition, in some embodiments, a number ofavailable spaces may be populated within the GUI, such that a user wouldbe able to see how many spaces are available in total. As such, wherethe GUI only displays a portion of the seating or spaces available(e.g., because an entire venue may not fit on a screen, such as a sportsvenue), the user may still be able to view the total number availablespaces at the venue and/or the total number of available spaces in thecurrently displayed portion of the venue.

In some embodiments, lines for rides at amusement parks, stores,bathrooms, concession stands, etc. may be monitored using one or moresensors (e.g., pressure, weight, heat, etc.), one or more cameras,and/or sensors of a user's client devices 104 (e.g., location sensors,network connections such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, near field communication,etc.). For example, the lines may be monitored in view of socialdistancing measures and/or other minimum distance measures. In suchexamples, the sensor data and/or image data may be analyzed to monitorthat people are obeying the minimum distance measures, and when they arenot, a signal may be generated (e.g., a voice prompt, an audio prompt, amessage to an employee, a notification on the person's phone that is notobeying the rules, etc.). In addition, the number of persons in the linemay be monitored, such as to update the system 100 as to how many peopleare in line as compared to a maximum allowed amount in the line. Thisinformation may also be used to update the GUI such that a user can seeif there are any spots left in a line, if there are no spots left, howmany spots are taken, how many spots are allowed in total, etc.

Once a user has entered their party size or the number seats of desired,the distance has been set (e.g., user-defined, predefined based onsocial distancing, etc.), the venue, location, activity, event, and/orobject has been selected, the user (and/or their party) has beenverified, and/or the account information has been updated, thisinformation may be used—e.g., by the client device(s) 104 and/or theserver device(s) 102—to update or populate a seating diagram 210corresponding to the venue, location, activity, event, and/or object. Inthe illustration of FIG. 2A, the event may be a particular movie at aparticular time within a particular movie theater. As such, the seatingdiagram 210 may be updated or populated to include available seats,unavailable seats (e.g., due to minimum distance measures), reservedseats (which may also be unavailable), and/or other seat types (e.g.,handicap). Just as each previously reserved seat from any other user mayhave been determined based on the minimum distance measure, thelocations of available seats (e.g., sets of seats, which may onlyinclude one seat, in examples) may be determined by the system 100—e.g.,by the client device(s) 104 and/or the server device(s) 102—in view ofthe minimum distance measure (e.g., pre-defined, user-defined, etc.).

To make the determination of which seats are available in compliancewith the minimum distance measure, various methods may be used. Forexample, in some embodiments, an estimated or known size and/ordimension of seats (e.g., all airline seats for a particular aircraftand/or airline company may be the same size and/or spacing, similarlyfor movie theaters or other venues, etc.), distances (e.g., averagedistance) between seats, orientation of seats, etc. may be used todetermine available seats that comply with the minimum distance measure.As such, in some embodiments, seat models or product numbers may beprovided by venues, companies, and/or the like and this information maybe used to generate an understanding by the system 100 of the dimensionsand relative distances between various seats or other occupancylocations (e.g., standing room areas). In other examples, an actual sizeand/or dimension of seats, spacing between and among seats, and/or otherspacing and orientation information of the event space may bedetermined. For example, measurements may be taken by the venue orhosting company, by an employee of a company associated with the system100, by a third party, etc. In some embodiments, this actual measure maybe taken using images (e.g., from cameras at the location, from camerasbrought in to take the images, etc.), building diagrams or constructiondocuments (e.g., filed with a city or town), and/or other resources. Insuch examples, such as where images are used, accurate dimensions may bedetermined using an object of a known size to calibrate the cameras orthe system 100 such that the dimensions of the seats, the space, etc.may be computed accurately.

In some embodiments, such as where each seat is not purchased orreserved electronically, various sensors, cameras, and/or otherinformation may be used to determine which seats are occupied such thatthe recommended seats are based on minimum distance measures. Forexample, pressure sensors, heat sensors, and/or other sensor typesassociated with each seat may be leveraged to determine occupancy withrespect to the seat. In some examples, cameras at the location may beleveraged using computer vision algorithms and/or machine learningmodels (e.g., deep neural networks, such as convolutional neuralnetworks, trained to output a confidence with respect to an occupancy ofeach seat) to determine occupancy of respective seats. This informationmay thus be used by the system 100 to update the seating diagram. Inembodiments where a venue is a restaurant, for example, that may notallow for reserved seats, the system 100 may be used to provideinformation as to whether seats are available that comply with theminimum distance measure. This information may then be used by a user todetermine whether the user should visit the establishment and/or wherein the establishment the user should sit in order to comply. Inaddition, this information may be leveraged to determine which locationsare busy, not busy, and/or the like. In some embodiments, a user may beable to reserve a seat at a location for a period of time—e.g., 5minutes, 10 minutes, etc. The reservations may also be based on othercriteria, such as a distance of the user to the location—e.g., must bewithin a quarter mile to reserve a space. In this way, users may be ableto reserve spaces at locations and/or monitor an occupancy status of alocation from their client device 104, and thus may only enter locationswhere there is availability and/or where minimum distance measures areable to be maintained. This may not only provide peace of mind for theuser, but also for the location, as well as providing a platform formore patrons and customers to visit locations knowing that they can doso while complying with desired and/or required minimum distancemeasures. Where assigned seating is not available at a location, orportions of a location do not have assigned seating (e.g., standing roomonly), this information may also be monitored (e.g., using camerasand/or other sensors) to determine a head count, a distance betweenindividuals (e.g., are the standing room only areas also minimumdistance measure compliant), and/or the like. In some embodiments, theclient application 110 may also allow a user to place an order prior toarrival and/or during the stay. As such, when a user reserves a seat,they may also place an order of food, drinks, items, etc. In addition,while seated, they may be able to make orders from their client device104 in order to expedite service—which may be even more critical wheremandatory social distancing measures in place to limit a length ofpotential exposure. In such examples, the account preferences,interests, etc. may be stored, such that recommendations for the userbased on their account information and the particular offerings of alocations may be provided to the user. In addition, a user may have“regular” or “recurring” orders, and the user may be prompted to enterthese orders during the reservation time, at arrival (e.g., asdetermined from location sensors such as GPS, near field communication,connection to Wi-Fi of the location, a prompt, and/or otherwise), and/orat another time.

Once the measurements of the location have been determined, such as butnot limited to as described herein, the seating diagram may be updatedor populated to reflect the computation of the available seats. In someembodiments, points in space may be assigned to each point on each seat,may be assigned to each point along edges of a seat, may be assigned tosome number of points along an outline of each seat, may be assigned toeach point along a bounding shape (e.g., a box, square, rectangle,polygon, circle, triangle, etc.) corresponding to a seat, may beassigned to vertices or various points along a bounding shape, may beassigned to a bounding shape that encompasses each seat for each party,and/or may otherwise be assigned. For example, and with respect to FIG.2A, a bounding box 212A may be associated with each of the reservedseats therein and a bounding box 212B may be associated with the twoavailable seats therein (e.g., prior to determining they are available).A distance(s) 214 may be computed between the bounding box 212A and thebounding box 212B to determine whether the seats within the bounding boxare available. This computation may be performed for each pair of seatsnot already determined to be unavailable and/or reserved, until thefinal outputs of the available seats are determined.

As such, the distance between points from one or more seats of eachparty may be compared to un-reserved seats—e.g., points correspondingthereto—in order to determine whether the minimum distance measure issatisfied for a number of seats corresponding to the number of personsin the party. The comparison may require that every single pointassociated with the reserved seats does not overlap with any point ofthe potential or un-reserved seats. In other embodiments, the comparisonmay require that only a single point doesn't overlap, that at least halfof the points don't overlap, that at least two thirds of the pointsdon't overlap, etc. Once the computation is performed with respect tothe currently reserved seats (which may be indicated as such within theseating diagram 210 of the GUI) and the un-reserved seats, the seatsthat are unavailable—e.g., no matter what, due to the minimum distancemeasure—may be indicated as such within the seating diagram 210 in theGUI, the seats that are unavailable due to there not being a number ofadjacent seats corresponding to the number of persons that each satisfythe minimum distance standard may be indicated as such within theseating diagram 210 of the GUI, and the remaining seats may be indicatedas available.

In some embodiments, the seats that are indicated as available may alsobe based on additional computations, such as maximizing occupancy of thespace. For example, if two seats that satisfy the minimum distancemeasure would render some number or percentage of other un-reservedseats unavailable, those two seats may not be listed as available to theuser. As another example, sets of two seats that satisfy the minimumdistance measure may be determined, then a computation of how many otherseats become unavailable for each set if selected may be determined, andsome number of the sets may be filtered out from availability based onthis computation—e.g., only the two sets that correspond to a lowestnumber of seats rendered unavailable, sets within a top twenty fivepercent of the all sets that correspond to a lowest number of seatsrendered unavailable, etc. In addition, in some embodiments, thereserved seats of any individuals may be dynamically updated to maximizecapacity. As such, for new users or parties that are reserving seats,other seats may be reassigned to accommodate more users. For example, aparty of two may be shifted to another location to allow their two seatsto be used by a party of five, if the shift renders less seatsunavailable as a result. Users may be notified of the dynamic shiftingof seats, may opt-in, and/or may opt-out, depending on the embodiment.As such, some, none, or all users may be subject to dynamic shifting ofseats.

With respect to FIG. 2A, the user may select the seats using his or herfinger 216, a stylus, a mouse, a remote, a keyboard, a touch screen, acombination thereof, etc. to select the desired seats. Once the seatsare selected, the user may enter a purchase screen whereby the user canpurchase the tickets using a credit card, selecting a cash option,linking to a payment vendor (e.g., APPLEPAY, VENMO, etc.), using analready linked payment option, etc. In some embodiments, the ticket orreservation may allow for hands-free access to the location, such thatthe location of the client device 104, another device associated withthe user, facial recognition, another recognition technology, and/orsome other method may be used to allow access with minimal person toperson or person to object contact.

Once the seats have been selected and/or purchased, this information maybe used by the system 100—e.g., transmitted from the client device 104to the server device(s) 102—to update the seating diagram 210 for a nextuser. As such, when a next user, as indicated by FIG. 2B, attempts tofind available seats, the seats that were selected by the prior user maybe shown as reserved or otherwise unavailable, and may also be used bythe system 100 to factor in the minimum distance measure to determineavailable seats for the new user.

Now referring to FIG. 3, each block of method 300, described herein,comprises a computing process that may be performed using anycombination of hardware, firmware, and/or software. For instance,various functions may be carried out by a processor executinginstructions stored in memory. The method 300 may also be embodied ascomputer-usable instructions stored on computer storage media. Themethod may be provided by a standalone application, a service or hostedservice (standalone or in combination with another hosted service), or aplug-in to another product, to name a few. In addition, method 300 isdescribed, by way of example, with respect to the system 100 of FIG. 1.However, this method may additionally or alternatively be executed byany one system, or any combination of systems, including, but notlimited to, those described herein.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a method 300 for seat selection incompliance with minimum distance measures, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure. The method 300, at block B302,includes receiving first user input data representative of a first inputto a GUI corresponding to a number of persons. For example, a user mayselect, within a GUI of the client application 110, a number of users orpersons for which a seat is desired.

The method 300, at block B304, includes populating a seating diagramwithin the GUI, the seating diagram including an indication of availableseats corresponding to the number of persons and in compliance with aminimum distance measure. For example, the seating diagram 210 may bepopulated or updated and displayed within the GUI to indicate availableseats that are determined based on the number of person and the minimumdistance measure being satisfied.

The method 300, at block B306, includes receiving second input datarepresentative of a second input to the GUI and corresponding to aselection of a set of available seats. For example, the user may selectthe seat(s) that are available to the user from the updated or populatedseating diagram 210.

The method 300, at block B308, includes transmitting data representativeof the selection to a remote computing device to cause the remotecomputing device to update the seating diagram. For example, onceselected, the data representing which seats were selected, reserved,and/or purchases may be transmitted from the client device 104 to theserver(s) 102, and the server may update the seating diagram 210 foreach other or next user of the system.

EXAMPLE COMPUTING DEVICE

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example computing device(s) 400 suitablefor use in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure.Computing device 400 may include an interconnect system 402 thatdirectly or indirectly couples the following devices: memory 404, one ormore central processing units (CPUs) 406, one or more graphicsprocessing units (GPUs) 408, a communication interface 410, input/output(I/O) ports 412, input/output components 414, a power supply 416, one ormore presentation components 418 (e.g., display(s)), and one or morelogic units 420.

Although the various blocks of FIG. 4 are shown as connected via theinterconnect system 402 with lines, this is not intended to be limitingand is for clarity only. For example, in some embodiments, apresentation component 418, such as a display device, may be consideredan I/O component 414 (e.g., if the display is a touch screen). Asanother example, the CPUs 406 and/or GPUs 408 may include memory (e.g.,the memory 404 may be representative of a storage device in addition tothe memory of the GPUs 408, the CPUs 406, and/or other components). Inother words, the computing device of FIG. 4 is merely illustrative.Distinction is not made between such categories as “workstation,”“server,” “laptop,” “desktop,” “tablet,” “client device,” “mobiledevice,” “hand-held device,” “game console,” “electronic control unit(ECU),” “virtual reality system,” and/or other device or system types,as all are contemplated within the scope of the computing device of FIG.4.

The interconnect system 402 may represent one or more links or busses,such as an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, or a combinationthereof. The interconnect system 402 may include one or more bus or linktypes, such as an industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, an extendedindustry standard architecture (EISA) bus, a video electronics standardsassociation (VESA) bus, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, aperipheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus, and/or anothertype of bus or link. In some embodiments, there are direct connectionsbetween components. As an example, the CPU 406 may be directly connectedto the memory 404. Further, the CPU 406 may be directly connected to theGPU 408. Where there is direct, or point-to-point connection betweencomponents, the interconnect system 402 may include a PCIe link to carryout the connection. In these examples, a PCI bus need not be included inthe computing device 400.

The memory 404 may include any of a variety of computer-readable media.The computer-readable media may be any available media that may beaccessed by the computing device 400. The computer-readable media mayinclude both volatile and nonvolatile media, and removable andnon-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, thecomputer-readable media may comprise computer-storage media andcommunication media.

The computer-storage media may include both volatile and nonvolatilemedia and/or removable and non-removable media implemented in any methodor technology for storage of information such as computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, and/or other data types.For example, the memory 404 may store computer-readable instructions(e.g., that represent a program(s) and/or a program element(s), such asan operating system. Computer-storage media may include, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which may be used to storethe desired information and which may be accessed by computing device400. As used herein, computer storage media does not comprise signalsper se.

The computer storage media may embody computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules, and/or other data types in a modulateddata signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism andincludes any information delivery media. The term “modulated datasignal” may refer to a signal that has one or more of itscharacteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode informationin the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, the computerstorage media may include wired media such as a wired network ordirect-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The CPU(s) 406 may be configured to execute at least some of thecomputer-readable instructions to control one or more components of thecomputing device 400 to perform one or more of the methods and/orprocesses described herein. The CPU(s) 406 may each include one or morecores (e.g., one, two, four, eight, twenty-eight, seventy-two, etc.)that are capable of handling a multitude of software threadssimultaneously. The CPU(s) 406 may include any type of processor, andmay include different types of processors depending on the type ofcomputing device 400 implemented (e.g., processors with fewer cores formobile devices and processors with more cores for servers). For example,depending on the type of computing device 400, the processor may be anAdvanced RISC Machines (ARM) processor implemented using ReducedInstruction Set Computing (RISC) or an x86 processor implemented usingComplex Instruction Set Computing (CISC). The computing device 400 mayinclude one or more CPUs 406 in addition to one or more microprocessorsor supplementary co-processors, such as math co-processors.

In addition to or alternatively from the CPU(s) 406, the GPU(s) 408 maybe configured to execute at least some of the computer-readableinstructions to control one or more components of the computing device400 to perform one or more of the methods and/or processes describedherein. One or more of the GPU(s) 408 may be an integrated GPU (e.g.,with one or more of the CPU(s) 406 and/or one or more of the GPU(s) 408may be a discrete GPU. In embodiments, one or more of the GPU(s) 408 maybe a coprocessor of one or more of the CPU(s) 406. The GPU(s) 408 may beused by the computing device 400 to render graphics (e.g., 3D graphics)or perform general purpose computations. For example, the GPU(s) 408 maybe used for General-Purpose computing on GPUs (GPGPU). The GPU(s) 408may include hundreds or thousands of cores that are capable of handlinghundreds or thousands of software threads simultaneously. The GPU(s) 408may generate pixel data for output images in response to renderingcommands (e.g., rendering commands from the CPU(s) 406 received via ahost interface). The GPU(s) 408 may include graphics memory, such asdisplay memory, for storing pixel data or any other suitable data, suchas GPGPU data. The display memory may be included as part of the memory404. The GPU(s) 408 may include two or more GPUs operating in parallel(e.g., via a link). The link may directly connect the GPUs or mayconnect the GPUs through a switch. When combined together, each GPU 408may generate pixel data or GPGPU data for different portions of anoutput or for different outputs (e.g., a first GPU for a first image anda second GPU for a second image). Each GPU may include its own memory,or may share memory with other GPUs.

In addition to or alternatively from the CPU(s) 406 and/or the GPU(s)408, the logic unit(s) 420 may be configured to execute at least some ofthe computer-readable instructions to control one or more components ofthe computing device 400 to perform one or more of the methods and/orprocesses described herein. In embodiments, the CPU(s) 406, the GPU(s)408, and/or the logic unit(s) 420 may discretely or jointly perform anycombination of the methods, processes and/or portions thereof. One ormore of the logic units 420 may be part of and/or integrated in one ormore of the CPU(s) 406 and/or the GPU(s) 408 and/or one or more of thelogic units 420 may be discrete components or otherwise external to theCPU(s) 406 and/or the GPU(s) 408. In embodiments, one or more of thelogic units 420 may be a coprocessor of one or more of the CPU(s) 406and/or one or more of the GPU(s) 408.

Examples of the logic unit(s) 420 include one or more processing coresand/or components thereof, such as Tensor Cores (TCs), Tensor ProcessingUnits(TPUs), Pixel Visual Cores (PVCs), Vision Processing Units (VPUs),Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), Texture Processing Clusters (TPCs),Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), Tree Traversal Units (TTUs), ArtificialIntelligence Accelerators (AIAs), Deep Learning Accelerators (DLAs),Arithmetic-Logic Units (ALUs), Application-Specific Integrated Circuits(ASICs), Floating Point Units (FPUs), input/output (I/O) elements,peripheral component interconnect (PCI) or peripheral componentinterconnect express (PCIe) elements, and/or the like.

The communication interface 410 may include one or more receivers,transmitters, and/or transceivers that enable the computing device 400to communicate with other computing devices via an electroniccommunication network, included wired and/or wireless communications.The communication interface 410 may include components and functionalityto enable communication over any of a number of different networks, suchas wireless networks (e.g., Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE,ZigBee, etc.), wired networks (e.g., communicating over Ethernet orInfiniBand), low-power wide-area networks (e.g., LoRaWAN, SigFox, etc.),and/or the Internet.

The I/O ports 412 may enable the computing device 400 to be logicallycoupled to other devices including the I/O components 414, thepresentation component(s) 418, and/or other components, some of whichmay be built in to (e.g., integrated in) the computing device 400.Illustrative I/O components 414 include a microphone, mouse, keyboard,joystick, game pad, game controller, satellite dish, scanner, printer,wireless device, etc. The I/O components 414 may provide a natural userinterface (NUI) that processes air gestures, voice, or otherphysiological inputs generated by a user. In some instances, inputs maybe transmitted to an appropriate network element for further processing.An NUI may implement any combination of speech recognition, stylusrecognition, facial recognition, biometric recognition, gesturerecognition both on screen and adjacent to the screen, air gestures,head and eye tracking, and touch recognition (as described in moredetail below) associated with a display of the computing device 400. Thecomputing device 400 may be include depth cameras, such as stereoscopiccamera systems, infrared camera systems, RGB camera systems, touchscreentechnology, and combinations of these, for gesture detection andrecognition. Additionally, the computing device 400 may includeaccelerometers or gyroscopes (e.g., as part of an inertia measurementunit (IMU)) that enable detection of motion. In some examples, theoutput of the accelerometers or gyroscopes may be used by the computingdevice 400 to render immersive augmented reality or virtual reality.

The power supply 416 may include a hard-wired power supply, a batterypower supply, or a combination thereof. The power supply 416 may providepower to the computing device 400 to enable the components of thecomputing device 400 to operate.

The presentation component(s) 418 may include a display (e.g., amonitor, a touch screen, a television screen, a heads-up-display (HUD),other display types, or a combination thereof), speakers, and/or otherpresentation components. The presentation component(s) 418 may receivedata from other components (e.g., the GPU(s) 408, the CPU(s) 406, etc.),and output the data (e.g., as an image, video, sound, etc.).

The disclosure may be described in the general context of computer codeor machine-useable instructions, including computer-executableinstructions such as program modules, being executed by a computer orother machine, such as a personal data assistant or other handhelddevice. Generally, program modules including routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, etc., refer to code that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Thedisclosure may be practiced in a variety of system configurations,including hand-held devices, consumer electronics, general-purposecomputers, more specialty computing devices, etc. The disclosure mayalso be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks areperformed by remote-processing devices that are linked through acommunications network.

As used herein, a recitation of “and/or” with respect to two or moreelements should be interpreted to mean only one element, or acombination of elements. For example, “element A, element B, and/orelement C” may include only element A, only element B, only element C,element A and element B, element A and element C, element B and elementC, or elements A, B, and C. In addition, “at least one of element A orelement B” may include at least one of element A, at least one ofelement B, or at least one of element A and at least one of element B.Further, “at least one of element A and element B” may include at leastone of element A, at least one of element B, or at least one of elementA and at least one of element B.

The subject matter of the present disclosure is described withspecificity herein to meet statutory requirements. However, thedescription itself is not intended to limit the scope of thisdisclosure. Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimedsubject matter might also be embodied in other ways, to includedifferent steps or combinations of steps similar to the ones describedin this document, in conjunction with other present or futuretechnologies. Moreover, although the terms “step” and/or “block” may beused herein to connote different elements of methods employed, the termsshould not be interpreted as implying any particular order among orbetween various steps herein disclosed unless and except when the orderof individual steps is explicitly described.

1-21. (canceled)
 22. A method comprising: receiving first input datarepresentative of a first input to an application, the first inputcorresponding to a first selection of a venue; transmitting first dataindicative of the first selection of the venue; receiving second datarepresentative of a seating diagram of the venue; populating, within agraphical user interface (GUI) of the application, the seating diagramincluding visual identifiers indicating available seats; receivingsecond input data representative of a second input to a graphicalelement of the GUI of the application, the second input corresponding toa second selection of an available seat of the available seats;populating, using the application, a menu associated with the venue;receiving third input data representative of a third input to theapplication, the third input corresponding to a third selection of aleast one item from the menu; and transmitting third data representativeof the second selection and the third selection to a computing deviceassociated with the venue.
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein the thirddata is transmitted to the computing device via one or more backenddevices.
 24. The method of claim 22, wherein the second data isindicative of the available seats, and the available seats aredetermined using a distancing measure such that one or more unoccupiedseats or unreserved seats are unavailable.
 25. The method of claim 22,further comprising: receiving fourth data representative of a currentoccupancy of the venue; populating, using the application, anothervisual identifier indicative of the current occupancy.
 26. The method ofclaim 25, wherein the populating the another visual identifier is priorto the receiving the first input data.
 27. The method of claim 22,further comprising: determining, using one or more location sensors, adistance of a client device executing the application from the venue;and determining that the distance is within a threshold distance,wherein the transmitting the third data is based at least in part on thedistance being within the threshold distance.
 28. The method of claim22, wherein the menu corresponds to an image of the menu uploaded usinga client device of a user having a user profile associated with theapplication.
 29. The method of claim 22, wherein the available seats aredetermined based at least in part on one or more of: pressure sensorsdisposed on seats at the venue; heat sensors disposed on seats at thevenue; weight sensors disposed on seats at the venue; or image analysisof images captured by one or more cameras as the venue.
 30. The methodof claim 22, wherein the populating the menu includes: determining, froma user profile corresponding to a current instance of the application,information from a prior order; and populating one or more itemsdetermined from the information.
 31. The method of claim 22, furthercomprising: receiving fourth data representative of a confirmation of areservation for the available seat; receiving fifth data representativeof an update to the reservation, the update including an indication thatan updated seat is confirmed different from the available seat, theupdate generated based at least in part on another reservation of one ormore updated available seats at the venue after the selection of theavailable seat.
 32. The method of claim 22, further comprising:retrieving user profile data corresponding to the application;transmitting fourth data representative of information from the userprofile to the computing device associated with the venue.
 33. A systemcomprising: one or more processors; one or more memory devices includinginstructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or moreprocessors, cause the one or more processors to execute operationscomprising: populating, within a graphical user interface (GUI) of anapplication, a listing of a plurality of restaurants and associatedoccupancy information for each restaurant of the plurality ofrestaurants; receiving first input data representative of a first inputto the GUI of the application, the first input corresponding to a firstselection of a restaurant from the listing of the plurality ofrestaurants; transmitting first data indicative of the first selectionof the restaurant; receiving second data representative of a seatingdiagram of the restaurant; populating, within the GUI of theapplication, the seating diagram including visual identifiers indicatingavailable seats; receiving second input data representative of a secondinput to a graphical element of the GUI of the application, the secondinput corresponding to a second selection of an available seat of theavailable seats; receiving third input data representative of a thirdinput to the GUI of the application, the third input corresponding to athird selection of a least one item corresponding to a menu of therestaurant; and transmitting third data representative of the secondselection and the third selection to a computing device associated withthe venue.
 34. The system of claim 33, wherein the second data isindicative of the available seats, and the available seats aredetermined using a distancing measure such that one or more unoccupiedseats or unreserved seats are unavailable.
 35. The system of claim 33,further comprising: receiving fourth data representative of a currentoccupancy of the restaurant, wherein the populating the listing of theplurality of restaurants and the associated occupancy information isbased at least in part on the fourth data.
 36. The system of claim 33,further comprising: determining, using one or more location sensors, adistance of a client device executing the application from therestaurant; and determining that the distance is within a thresholddistance, wherein the transmitting the third data is based at least inpart on the distance being within the threshold distance.
 37. The systemof claim 33, wherein the available seats are determined based at leastin part on one or more of: pressure sensors disposed on seats at therestaurant; heat sensors disposed on seats at the restaurant; weightsensors disposed on seats at the restaurant; or image analysis of imagescaptured by one or more cameras as the restaurant.
 38. The system ofclaim 33, further comprising: retrieving user profile data correspondingto the application; transmitting fourth data representative ofinformation from the user profile to the computing device associatedwith the venue.
 39. A method comprising: receiving, using an applicationexecuting on a client device remotely located with respect to a venue, afirst selection of an available seat from a seating diagram indicatingavailable seats; transmitting first data representative of the firstselection to a first computing device managing a reservations system forthe venue to cause the available seat to be updated to a reserved seatwithin the reservation system; receiving, using the applicationexecuting on the client device while still remotely located with respectto the venue, a second selection of an item corresponding to availableitems at the venue; determining, based at least in part on location datafrom one or more location sensors of the client device, that the clientdevice is no longer remotely located with respect to the venue; andtransmitting second data representative of the item and a relationshipbetween the item and the available seat to a second computing deviceassociated with the venue.
 40. The method of claim 39, furthercomprising: receiving, using the application, a third selection of atime corresponding to when a reservation is requested; transmittingthird data representative of the time to the first computing device; andbased at least in part on the transmitting the third data, receivingfourth data representative of the seating diagram and the availableseats at the time.
 41. The method of claim 39, wherein the venue is arestaurant and the item is a food or beverage from a menu of therestaurant.
 42. The method of claim 39, wherein the second data isfurther representative of a name from a user profile associated with theapplication.